Phoneme decoding system and method

ABSTRACT

The invention disclosed herein relates generally to a phoneme communication system. More specifically, the invention relates to a phoneme communication system utilizing entertaining phoneme symbols that have a one-to-one correspondence with a phoneme. The invention also relates to phonetic patch for correcting already existing orthographic codifications of English phonemes and other phonemes.

RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application claims the benefit under 35 U.S.C. § 119 of provisionalpatent application number 60/507,173 filed Sep. 30, 2003 and provisionalpatent application number 60/510,732 filed Oct. 11, 2003, which arehereby incorporated by reference in their entirety.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

The invention disclosed herein relates generally to a phonemecommunication system. More specifically, the invention relates to aphoneme communication system utilizing entertaining phoneme symbols thathave a one-to-one correspondence with a phoneme. The invention alsorelates to phonetic patch for correcting already existing orthographiccodifications of English phonemes and other phonemes.

Learning to read the English language is considered a very difficultchallenge, whether for children, “English as a Second Language” (ESL)students, ambassadors and other politicians, or others. This is dueprimarily to the complexity of the written English language attributableto the language's roots in several other tongues. The English alphabetonly has twenty-six letters, however the English language contains morethan twenty-six phonemes. As a result of this discrepancy, many lettersor strings of letters represent one or more phonemes dependent uponusage. This gives rise to great difficulty in the phonetic decoding ofindividual words. Unlike Spanish and other more truly phoneticlanguages, English words are often not spelled as they sound. From thepoint of view of one learning the language, for example, standard letterstring representations of actual human-pronounceable sounds (phonemes)are misleading.

Prior attempts were made to minimize these difficulties. For example,U.S. Pat. No. 4,007,548 (“Cytanovich”) discusses a method of teachingreading by presenting words in an orthography consisting of standardtype having letters associated with each sound sequentially in asyllable and symbols to indicate each of the vowel sounds. Also, U.S.Pat. No. 6,604,947 (“Rai”) discusses an education method for aiding toteach and learn reading, writing and spelling. The method employs bothcolors and symbols. However, the prior art is deficient in manyrespects, including in its ability to effectively and comprehensivelydelineate syllables, delineate emphasis, and communicate silentphonemes, consonant phonemes, and communicate other phonemes, such asdiphthong and construction phonemes, for example. Furthermore, the priorart could not be used as to phonetic patch for correcting alreadyexisting phoneme codifications (e.g. existing phoneme spellings).

Interestingly, ancient languages such as Hebrew and Arabic, recognizingthe difficulty, utilized reading marks to assist with phoneticinterpretation. Reading marks in languages such as Hebrew and Arabic aregenerally considered in two classes, vowels and diacritics. Ancientphonetic languages such as Hebrew and Arabic were written without manyof the spoken vowels. After many centuries, scholars and scribes beganthe practice of adding vowels to supplement the consonants. This wasdone in the manner of superscripted and subscripted vowels above andbelow the consonants, thereby effectively circumventing the need torearrange the written root characters of the word. However these readingmarks did not communicate any information to the reader as to how theunderlying root letter should be pronounced when positioned in varyingcontexts. Unlike English, these languages were primary tongues. One ofthe difficulties arises in English, as a result of the fact that it is aheterogeneous language, built upon the word and spellings of words fromother languages.

A second class of reading marks known as diacritics also accompanieswritten Arabic and Hebrew text. These marks are non-unique marks thatcan be associated with one of several letters and indicate to the readerhow much and what type of verbal emphasis should be applied to a givenletter. Diacritic marks require the reader to conjugate a sound byreading the mark in conjunction with the underlying alphabeticcharacter.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The present invention does not require conjugation. Preferredembodiments utilize superscripted marks to communicate information tothe reader as to how the underling letter string should be pronounced.In addition to solving the problem of conjugation, the present inventionproviding the improvement of a comprehensive orthographic patch, thatcomprehensively codifies existing English-language phonemes (or more).The patch, being comprised of phoneme symbols, can be positioned withexisting text so as to decode the letter string phonemes. When NoahWebster created the groundwork for the modern English orthography, hedid not utilize a one-to-one correspondence between letters/charactersand phonemes. The present invention, in some embodiments, is a patchthat bridges the gap between phonemes and letter strings of varying andlength and usages. By utilizing these patches, readers that are bothfluent and non-fluent in the text, can read the text passages.

Embodiments of the phonetics system communicate the proper sounding ofnew and novel words to children, ESL students, disabled readers, foreignreaders and experienced readers and can be regionalized to effectivelycommunicate the phonetics of a dialect, regional or otherwise. Actorsand other professionals can quickly, and efficiently learn a dialect,for example. The system does not distort the spelling of a word, and isa comprehensive sounding aid flexible to expand when new words andphonemes are added.

The number of phonemes in the English language is a subject of academicdebate. The present invention contemplates the use of any number ofphonemes, so long as there is a one-to-one correspondence between aphoneme and a symbol type that is representative of that phoneme. In thepreferred embodiment, there are fifty-three English-language phonemesplus a silent phoneme. The silent phoneme is used to indicate a silentletter string and is properly codified as a null sign. In someembodiments, there are a lower or greater number of phonemes.

Phonemes (human pronounceable sounds) are codified into symbol typeswith a bilateral one-to-one correspondence and represented by phonemesymbols and the inventory of phoneme symbols is flexible to expand whennew phonemes are contemplated. When the phoneme symbols are aligned orotherwise disposed proximate to a letter string in a word, for placing asuperscripted phoneme symbol above a letter string, the phonetic phonemesymbol indicates the identity of the phoneme underlying the letterstring in accordance with the given usage. As discussed herein, a“silent phoneme” is defined as a lack of pronounced sound or a break inpronounced sound. For example, the “e” in the word “brake” is a silentsound. As another non-limiting example, the “l” in the word “walk” is asilent sound. The preferred symbol type for a silent phoneme is the nullsign, however any suitable symbol may be used.

The present invention utilizes a one-to-one correspondence betweensymbol types and phonemes. An instance of the symbol type is referred toherein as a phoneme symbol. For example, a passage may show multipleinstances of the symbol type “E” (a.k.a. multiple phoneme symbols) in agiven passage. For example, in sentence “I saw a tree in the city,”there would be a phoneme symbol “E” above the “ee” in “tree” and abovethe “y” in the word “city”. Only one phoneme is associated with aparticular symbol type and only that particular symbol type isassociated with the phoneme. Multiple phonemes and symbol types can beassociated with a particular letter string. However, the symbol keyallows the decoding of these letter strings and associates each letterstring with a corresponding phoneme, and in most cases, associated theletter string with a phoneme symbol.

Preferred embodiments of the present invention comprise a phonemecommunication method for aiding to teach and learn proper Englishreading, sounding and spelling, wherein students and readers canvisualize, at a glance, which letter strings are to be sounded aswritten and which are to be sounded in accordance with a soundrepresented by a phoneme symbol located proximate to the letter strings.Some embodiments of the present invention provide a method of phoneticreading which is applicable on any visual media that can be displayed,projected, printed, etc.

Preferred embodiment of the phoneme decoding system and method include amedium, a plurality of words disposed on the medium, and a plurality ofphoneme symbols disposed on the medium. In preferred embodiments themedium comprises paper, for example, however in some embodiments, themedium comprises a “virtual medium,” similar in respect to an encodedfile that is human-perceivable with a word-processing, translation orother similar software program. A virtual medium can both be perceivedon a screen as well as saved onto a computer-readable medium, such as amagnetic or electro-optical disc for example. The virtual medium can befurther manipulated and will be further discussed below.

A plurality of words are disposed on the medium and each word has atleast one letter string. A letter string is a textual or orthographicincarnation of a phoneme sound and includes 1 or more letters. Forexample, the word “nice” is comprised of three letter strings: “n”, “i”and “ce”. Each of these three letter strings has their own sound. Asanother non-limiting example, the word “motion” contains three letterstrings: “m”, “o” and “tion”. Each of these three letter strings isrepresentative of their own phoneme. A letter string should not beconfused with a syllable. Some embodiments preferably include at leastone substantially vertical line disposed on the medium and within a wordto delineate syllables of the word. Other syllable delineation methodsare contemplated. Furthermore, an emphasis mark can be included

All letter strings are representative of either a single source phonemeor a multi-source phoneme. A single-source phoneme is a phoneme that iscurrently only represented by one letter string representation. In theEnglish language, all single source phonemes are consonant sounds.Letter strings representing single source phonemes need not beaccompanied by a phoneme symbol, because they can only be pronounced.All other letter strings can be representative of a plurality ofphonemes dependent on usage. Such letter strings are patched with asuperscripted (for example) phoneme symbol so that the readerunderstands what phoneme should be pronounced. Again, a phoneme is thesound, whereas the letter string is the grouping of letters attemptingto textually communicate the sound. Multi-source phonemes include allother phonemes will be discussed below.

In preferred embodiments, symbols are placed above, for example, letterstrings that are associated with or representative of multi-sourcephonemes. Preferred embodiments include phoneme symbols representativeof multi-source vowel phonemes, multi-source consonant phonemes, andother phonemes. The letters in the letter string are not physicallyreplaced; for example, the letters are not crossed-off with new letterswritten aside them. The term phoneme, as used herein, relates toabstract phoneme: a reader can look to the phoneme represented by asymbol if the reader is having trouble perceiving the phoneme from theletter string.

At least one phoneme symbol is utilized that represents a vowel phoneme.The phoneme symbol is disposed on the medium (e.g. paper, virtual, film,etc) in proximate location to a letter string representative of theplurality of vowel phoneme phonemes. This phoneme symbol is of a firstsymbol type and is exclusively associated with one of the vowelphonemes. Such exclusive association is bilateral, as there isone-to-one correspondence.

At least one phoneme symbol is utilized that represents a consonantphoneme and is disposed on the medium in proximate location to a letterstring representative of one of a plurality of consonant phonemes. Theconsonant phoneme symbol is of a second symbol type (different from thefirst symbol type) and is exclusively associated with one of theconsonant phonemes. Such exclusive association is bilateral, as there isone-to-one correspondence.

A symbol key preferably defines these exclusive associations. In some,but not all, embodiments of the present invention, the symbol key itselfis included in the system. In some other embodiments, the symbol key isnot included and user knowledge of the exclusive associations ispresumed. The present invention is preferably an English phonemedecoding system, however one skilled in the art will appreciate that thepresent invention can be adapted to other suitable languages. In someembodiments, exclusive relationships are defined in accordance withstandard American English, however in some embodiments, the exclusiverelationships are defined in accordance with dialects, regional accentsand/or cultural accents.

In embodiments utilizing a virtual medium, the virtual medium is atleast temporarily stored on a computer-readable medium. A computer maybe utilized comprising a processor, an at least temporary memory, adisplay, and an input device. Furthermore, computer-executable code isused for creating and altering letter strings, phoneme symbols, thevirtual medium itself, and the symbol key itself. Embodiments of thephoneme decoding system include computer executable code for, inaccordance with an alteration to the symbol key, automaticallyredefining the exclusive relationships and altering the disposition ofthe phoneme symbols accordingly. This is particularly useful forautomatically converting text passages into text pages annotated withphoneme symbols and will be discussed below.

A phonetic reading system is also disclosed herein, comprising a set ofphonetic phoneme symbols each symbol representative of a sound, saidsounds consisting of sounds made during human speech, and said phoneticphoneme symbols representative of both vowel sounds and consonantsounds; and a medium having a word thereon, said word having a pluralityof alphabet characters representing sounds made during human speech,said sounds made during human speech being one of a root sound, aphoneme sound and a silent sound.

In some embodiments, the phonetic phoneme symbols comprise a readingmark that is disposed on said medium above or below said alphabetcharacters representing a phoneme sound; the root sound is depicted onsaid medium within said word by the absence of said reading mark; thephoneme sound is depicted on said medium within said word by thedisposition of said reading mark replacing said root sound of saidalphabet character(s) with which said reading mark is associated; andsaid silent sound is depicted on said medium within said word by thedisposition of said reading mark replacing said root sound of saidalphabet character(s) with which said reading mark is associated.Depending on the embodiment, the medium can be video display, filmdisplay, vocalized and/or incorporated within a digital medium.

These and other features and objects of the invention will be more fullyunderstood from the following detailed description of the preferredembodiments, which should be read in light of the accompanying drawings.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The accompanying drawings, which are incorporated in and form a part ofthe specification, illustrate the embodiments of the present inventionand, together with the description serve to explain the principles ofthe invention. In the drawings:

FIG. 1 a is a sample passage of words showing embodiments of phonemesymbols positioned above corresponding letter strings;

FIG. 1 b is a sample passage of words showing embodiments of phonemesymbols, syllable delineators, and emphasis marks;

FIG. 2 is a textual illustration showing that a single letter string canbe associated with a plurality of different phonemes;

FIG. 3 is a classification page showing the letter strings that areassociated with a common phoneme and symbol type;

FIG. 4 a is an embodiment of a classification page showing which phonemeare associated with each symbol type; and

FIG. 4 b is an embodiment of a classification page showing sample wordsthat incorporate a phoneme associated with a certain symbol type.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

In describing an embodiment of the invention illustrated in thedrawings, specific terminology will be used for the sake of clarity.However, the invention is not intended to be limited to the specificterms so selected, and it is to be understood that each specific termincludes all technical equivalents which operate in a similar manner toaccomplish a similar purpose.

Reading can be characterized as a complex function of humanintelligence. Humans learn to speak before learning to read and thus“hear” the words in the mind as the words are sounded out from the page.However, decoding is necessary to sound out the word. Moreover, in orderto sound out words correctly humans need to have letter strings ofalphabetic characters to tell us what the sounds of the word are. Ahuman combines phonemes together to speak, write and read words. This isa form of encoding and decoding.

Over several viewings of a word, a human recognizes the connected soundsymbols (letter strings) as a visual pattern. Consequently, thereference points in the brain are connected between sound (temporallobe) centers and visual (visual cortex) centers and comprehension(frontal lobe) centers. In other words, a human recognizes andunderstand the “whole” word. The process of learning to read mustcommence sequentially from learning the letter strings symbolizingsounds, to learning how to combine the letter stings together, tolearning to recognize the whole word as a visual pattern, tocomprehending the word to, and to learning to write and spell the word.If reading is learned sequentially reading ability accelerates rapidly.If reading is learned out of neurological and phonological sequence,reading ability is stunted. Secondly, and unfortunately, the Englishlanguage is flawed and teaching the sounds of English, while, withoutdoubt, one of the most critical of components for learning to read, isalso the most overlooked component to reading precisely because thewritten language has obscured the sounds of English within the writtencode itself as evidenced by the occurrences of multiple letters havingmultiple sounds associated with them on the order of 190+ irregularcombinations that show up in everyday common words. This, in a nutshell,is one of the problems of learning to read English and the primary causeof reading difficulty and illiteracy in English speaking countries.

Compare this to Greek in which every letter has one, unique sound, a oneto one correspondence between letter and sound. Greek is pure because itwas created by the Greek scholars borrowing letters from the Phonoecianand adding to them as necessary to encode each sound of the Greeklanguage. Also compare Spanish and Finnish. English borrowed the Greek(then Roman) alphabet, added over twenty new sounds and never updatedthe code! Rather than creating new symbols for the new sounds, thedisorganized peoples and clans of ancient England, having virtually nosystematic scholarship for more than a thousand years, allowed vowelsand consonants to take on unlimited new pronunciations either standingalone or as part of a combination of letters. Completely unregulated andsubject to continuous chaotic and dynamic forces such as power shifts inthe military and political spectrum, English quickly got out of control.

Samuel Johnson finally attempted to bring the wayward tongue somewhatunder control in 1755 by writing the first ever English dictionary tostandardize the definition, spelling and pronunciation of English words.Noah Webster followed in Johnson's path and in 1783 published the“American Speller” and in 1828 published the first ever American Englishdictionary that we know today as Webster's. For all that both of thesetwo great lexicographers did to standardize the language, they made noattempt to fix the underlying flaw that had grown into an incredibleburden to learning to read English.

The present invention is the first of its kind effort to attempt toprovide the symbols that have been missing from the language for nearly2,000 years and is designed for maximum assimilation by students. Eachsymbol type is easily memorable by, for example, its pictogram.Embodiments of the invention include twenty-seven symbol types tophonetically interpret irregular English letter strings. Phonemesymbols, characterized as being one of these symbol types, are placedabove the letter strings in a given word or sentence, for example.Students look at the phoneme symbol each time they come across anunfamiliar letter string. They pronounce the sound associated with thephoneme symbol and temporarily disregard the letter string. In this waythey work through the “sounding out” process of reading the word.

Comprehension comes next. This is a function primarily of neuralconnectivity within the temporal lobe of the brain, and specificallybetween Wernicke's Area in the brain where sounds are heard, and speechcenters in the brain where sounds are made (Broca's Area), and alsoareas of the frontal lobe where words are understood. Children firstsound out words awkwardly, say the sounds to themselves one or two timessilently or out loud, say them faster and more fluidly as necessary, andthen wait for a period of between a few microseconds and a few secondsfor the neural connections to be formed in the temporal and frontallobes. At this time, readers experience the associated electrical andneuroendocrinal impulses of neural connectivity in the brain. Thisfeeling is loosely vernacularized as an “Aha!” moment. Once the temporallobe hearing and speaking centers are connected to the frontal lobe wordcomprehension centers, the student can progress to linking the visualcortex, but not before the critical temporal/frontal link has beencompleted. Embodiments of the present invention enhance temporo-frontallinking by ensuring that all the necessary sounds contained in the wordare available to the student for decoding and interpreting.

Currently at least one, (by definition) and normally many letters inEVERY word of the English language have no obvious associated soundleaving the reader one of only two options, guess or ask! The presentinvention eliminates the guesswork so students can progressindependently, rapidly, and have fewer questions, enabling teachers toprovide direct one-on-one guidance as needed. Children can read bythemselves in a matter of days.

Visual coding comes next. After continued viewing of words and letterstrings, repeated electrical firings in the temporal lobe, and betweenthe temporal lobe, frontal lobe and visual cortex, create neuralpathways and facilitate neural encoding and recognition of words andmemory of words as stand alone units. In other words after a human see aword a few times, the human doesn't need to sound it out any more. Thesame is true with certain regular and even irregular letter strings,e.g. “phone” but not “pone.” Once visual, temporal and frontalrecognition is completed, the reader “knows” a new word.

Spelling is a visual activity. The visual cortex is responsible forencoding the visual image of every word but this does not mean thathumans can learn words as pictures without understanding themphonemically. In other words, humans continuously confirm while reading,in the temporal lobe and frontal lobes, what the visual lobe isidentifying. For instance, a human sees the word “pepper” and thenconfirms the three “p's” and vowel sounds in the temporal lobe byinitiating, however brief, a sound impulse in Wernicke's area, which isthen confirmed in the frontal lobe. People who dwell on this soundimpulse are slow readers who still sound out words or spend too muchtime confirming their words and sounds due to a variety of reasons. Fastreaders confirm faster. All readers must confirm or they are notreading, are not decoding and comprehending. Confirming is afundamental, completely learnable skill that is the core component ofreading ability in all human beings.

Spelling is a recall event beginning in the temporal lobe (audio cortex,Wernicke's Area) moving to the visual cortex, moving back and forth asnecessary between them and the frontal lobe and then ending in thetemporal lobe (Broca's area) where the word muscle sequence neuralfiring pattern is triggered to sound the word in the mouth and vocalchords or in the motor cortex where the word writing sequence isactivated. In other words, humans hear the word, humans see the word,humans try to identify the letter strings of the word in the visualcortex where they are stored as symbols, and humans thenassemble/compile the letters and send out for confirmation that assemblywill produce the correct sound that would be heard and say and that allthis makes sense to our logic centers in the frontal lobe andpotentially to other areas of the brain. Once we receive confirmationfrom all indicated areas, the motor cortex is triggered and humans mayspell the word on paper or out loud.

Spelling, by definition, chronologically must follow word patternrecognition. Spelling memory is embedded throughout the reading processas a function of continuous back and forth neural activity betweenvarious lobes, but correct spelling must come after our ability torecall the entire word. Humans cannot possibly spell a word that wecannot recall visual imagery of. Spelling can be enhanced by repetitiousexercise of the recall process (spelling B's, spelling tests). Spellingcan also be enhanced by writing, but all writing is not equal.

Embodiments of the present invention provide a paradigm shifting toolfor children to activate the frontal lobe by writing complete thoughtsyears sooner than they ever could have before, which may lead to levelsof neural connectivity, complexity and neurotopological sophisticationin the frontal lobe far greater than we have ever seen. One object ofsome embodiments of the present invention is to help children achievereading skill equal to their speaking and listening skills as quickly aspossible. Reading skills usually do not synch up with verbal skillsuntil 7th, 8th or 9th grades. It is believed that reading skills can besynchronized with verbal skills as young as kindergarten or first grade.This is seven years sooner than average and allows for seven criticalyears of neural development of the brain's language centers in anenvironment of synchronized reading and verbal skills. When thestudent's writing centers in the brain are activated, and they toobecome synchronized with the reading and verbal centers, connectivity ofall language processing neurons may increase exponentially. At thispoint, the linguistically empowered students become sophisticatedcomprehenders of literature and text, talented communicators; and thesky is the limit regarding how far and what type of information theywish to consume in their quest for answers and greater intelligence.

Embodiments of the present invention include special voice-to-textfeatures and advantages. Program code can be used to convert passages ofEnglish text into corresponding passages of phonetic symbols (and/orsingle-source phonemes). In some embodiments, a phoneme dictionarydiscussed above or other information table, is referenced in electronicform to obtain the proper emphasis and syllable delineation. In thisrespect, a phoneme translation module, converts letter strings havingone-to-many correspondence with actual phonemes to correspondingphonetic symbols having one-to-one correspondence with actual phonemes.

With principal reference to FIGS. 1 a, 1 b and 2, words are shown withphoneme symbols 110 of various symbol types. The phoneme decoding systemand method does not require the alteration of English words by theexchange of alphabetic characters with phonetic characters. Phonemesymbols 110 supplement the letter strings 120 as superscripted orsuperimposed set of reading marks. Additional reading marks may be addedas a subscript below letter strings 120. Substantially vertical lines,referenced herein as syllable delineators 130 and shown in FIG. 1 b, canbe added between syllables within a given word without the necessity ofaltering the spacing between the alphabetic characters of that word.Emphasis marks 140 may be used to indicate emphasis of a syllable.

A comparison of phoneme symbols 150 a (“S”) and 150 b (“S”) is anexample showing multiple instances (phoneme symbols 110) of the samesymbol type 310. By contrast, a comparison of phoneme symbols 150 a(“S”) and 160 (“

”) is an example showing phoneme symbols 110 of different, mutuallyexclusive symbol types.

Unlike the International Phonetic Alphabet, Cytanovich or Rai,embodiments of the invention are designed to accompany the Englishlanguage text of a book or document for the purpose of providing propersounding of all unknown words. In addition to education, somenon-limiting examples of high-level applications include, business,medical, diplomatic, and other applications. Existing text can besupplemented by phoneme symbols in a way that patches the codes, or inother words, bridges the gap between the orthography and thepronunciation. In this way, when the orthographic code and the path areboth present, readers can understand how to properly pronounce writtenletter strings so long as they either know the meaning of phoneme symbol110 and/or if they already know how to pronounce the given word. Phonemesymbols 110 do not need to be conjugated with other written symbols orletters in order to be properly understood from the symbol key.

Due to elimination of the need to conjugate, the present inventionminimizes the degree to which a reader will make an error ininterpreting the phoneme to be pronounced. Furthermore, the presentinvention does not require the use of a monochrome or blackfaceappearance of text. The invention is comprised of a unique set ofphonetic phoneme symbols all having a monochrome appearance. Thisfacilitates compatibility with both color and monochrome printingpresses and other mediums.

With principal reference to FIG. 2, a textual illustration is shown toemphasize that different instances of a letter string 120 a can beassociated with a plurality of different phonemes. This inherentambiguity, however, is avoided by placement of a phoneme symbol 110 overthe ambiguous letter string 120 a. A symbol key identifies the phonemeassociated with phoneme symbol 110.

With principal reference to FIG. 3, an embodiment of a symbol key isshown and designated generally 300 containing symbol types 310. Symbolkey 300 includes a silent symbol type and fifty-three other symbol types310. Silent symbol type is representative of silent phoneme and ispreferably the symbol for null. Each of the other fifty-three symboltypes 310 are representative of either long vowel sounds, short vowelsounds, vowel digraphs and diphthongs, “L”, “M”, “N” and “R” controlledvowels, multi-source consonant sounds, single-source consonant sounds,digraphs, constructions and other symbols.

In preferred embodiments, symbol type 310 (from which phoneme symbol 110is chosen) is logically and/or cognitively related to the phoneme itrepresents by having alphabetic or pictogram related to the associatedphoneme. As a non-limiting example, in the word “claw”, the “aw” soundis represented by a small picture of a paw. As another non-limitingexample, in the word “shell”, the “sh” sound is always represented by asmall picture of a ship.

Embodiments of symbol key 200 provides a unique phonetic code ready forevery word in the English language (and any foreign language) and isflexible enough to be modified for differing regional and culturalaccents. For example, another embodiment of symbol key 200 can beapplied to a text passage containing letter strings 120 that arearticulated in French. The phoneme decoding system is flexible enough toallow for the creation of new symbol types 310. As another non-limitingexample, symbol key 200 for a British differs slightly from the Americanversion with respect to the symbol types 220 chosen and the dispositionof phoneme symbols 110. Indian English will differ from South AfricanEnglish; Bostonian English will differ from Mississippian English; andEbonics will differ from Yiddish. These differences can be embodied invarious symbol keys 200 by associating different phonemes with symboltypes 220 and phoneme symbols 110 in accordance with usages particularto the subject language, dialect and/or accent.

With reference to FIGS. 3, 4 and 4 b, additional embodiments of symbolkey 300 are shown as symbol key 400 a and symbol key 500. There areapproximately one-hundred-eighty letter strings in the English languagethat represent the fifty-four phonemes (including the silent sound).However, the English alphabet only contains twenty-six letters. Asshown, all fifty-four phonemes are reductively codified and representedby fifty-four symbol types 220. Phoneme symbols 110 are chosen fromthese fifty-four symbol types 220 for appropriate placement over letterstrings 120. The fifty-four symbol types 220 shown were chosen because,among other reasons, the particular alphabetic or pictogramrepresentation enhances the ability to learn. While such scrutiny ofchoice is preferable, symbol types 220 can be arbitrarily selected solong as mutual exclusivity is maintained. Of the fifty-four symboltypes, nine are associated with single-source letters, twelve areassociated with multi-source consonant sounds, and thirty-three areassociated with multi-source vowel sounds or other sounds. Again, thereis an absence of unanimous consensus among academics as to how manyphonemes there are. The present invention contemplates any number ofphonemes so long as a one-to-cone correspondence is established betweenphonemes and phoneme symbols 110.

With principal reference to FIG. 4 a, another embodiment of a symbol keyis shown and designated generally 400 a. The nine single-source phonemesare shown. Each of the single-source letters is a root phoneme. In theEnglish language, each of these root phonemes can be pronounced only oneway and any confusion experienced by a reader is negligible. For thisreason, preferred embodiments of the phoneme decoding system do not needto include any positioning of phoneme symbols 110 over letter strings120 embodying a root phoneme.

Twelve multi-source consonant sounds are shown. Each of themultiple-source consonant phonemes are shown with the potential letterstrings 120 that could be associated with the particular multi-sourceconsonant phoneme. Each of the twelve multi-source consonant phonemesare associated with mutually exclusive symbol types. The sound is acodified consonant sound that can be represented by more than one letterstring.

With principle reference to FIGS. 3, 4 a and 4 b, the remainingthirty-three sounds are also shown and described. These sounds includemulti-source vowel sounds (vowel sounds derived from various letters orcombinations of letters), multi-source digraphs (combinations ofconsonants or vowel that create a single new sound) multi-sourcediphthongs (combination of vowel sounds where one sounds blends toanother and that can be represented by either vowels or consonants andby either a single letter or a combination of letters). Thesethirty-three sounds are collectively referenced herein as vowelphonemes.

In some embodiments of the present invention, a symbol key comprises awall-chart learning tool such as the sample shown in FIG. 6. This canalso be used at the home to reinforce one's memory of symbol key 200.Furthermore, phoneme symbols 110 can be incorporated as part of a flashcard game helping children to build words by sounding them out using thevisual phonemes of phoneme symbols. In this manner phoneme symbols 210can be applied to teach and learn the English language through a numberof game oriented educational tools. In some embodiments of the presentinvention, symbol key 200 can also be used as a tool that teachers canrefer students to for the students to increase familiarity with thephonemes associated with a given symbol. This curriculum can beincorporated into any digital, multimedia, and/or transmitted format forcomputer and/or Internet usage. It can also serve as the core of areading program.

Furthermore, in some embodiments, the present invention is incorporatedinto educational toys, games and/or learning tools, such as by way ofnon-limiting example, in an electronic console-based quiz game orreading application. Embodiments of the present invention can be addedto the existing phonics and reading texts by adding the phoneme symbolsbased on the method and system disclosed herein. Digital text can alsobe altered through the population of any digital text with the phonemesymbols. This can be accomplished using computer-executable code.

In some embodiments, the phoneme decoding system and method utilizes avirtual medium for computer-based applications. In most cases, thevirtual medium is a file, word-processing document, or other medium thatis human-perceivable with the aid of computer, but is in digital (oranalog) format. In most cases, the virtual medium (e.g. file) is savedon a computer-readable medium.

In some embodiments, the system and method utilize a computer. Thecomputer can include a processor, an at least temporary memory, adisplay, and an input device. Other computer hardware can be utilizeddepending on the task at hand, such as scanners, guided and unguidedsignal transceivers (e.g. modem, LAN connection, wireless Internetcommunication device, cellular devices, WIFI-enabled devices, etc.), andother hardware. Computer-executable code can be used to create the firstinstances of symbol keys 200 passage and/or words having letter strings120. Computer-executable code can also be utilized to identify theappropriate phoneme symbols 110 and appropriately position theappropriate phoneme symbols 110. This is based at least in part on (1)what phoneme is associated with each letter string, and (2) what symbolkey is being used (e.g. American standard, New England, London, etc.)

Computer-executable code can also be used in a subsequent instance toalter the phonetic identity and/or position of the phoneme symbols. Suchapplication is particularly useful for readers that are familiar with orare studying two different accents, dialects (or even languages). Byscrutinizing a first medium populated by a first symbol key and thenscrutinizing the same or another medium populated by a second symbolkey, a reader can manually identify where the distinctions are betweentwo different accents, dialects or languages. Some embodiments of thecomputer-executable code can include a “compare” feature toautomatically identify the linguistic differences in a passage based ontwo or more different symbol keys.

Some embodiments of the present invention comprise a phoneme dictionary,said phoneme dictionary comprising a medium with certain informationdisposed thereon. Some embodiments of the dictionary are phonologicallyorganized writer's dictionary for the English language. The dictionaryis alphabetized (rather “phona-bet”-ized) according to the fifty-three,for example, symbol types. The particular order of the phonebetizationcan be arbitrarily selected, just as alphabetization is arbitrary.Consistency is the important feature. One phonabetized, the order of thephonabets should remain the same. To look up a word, a reader can soundthe word, identify the symbols types associated with sounded phoneme(s),and then look up the word phonabetically. Upon discovering the word,there may be several homophones (words that sound the same but arespelled differently) listed at the same location. Each homophone has itsdefinition and its alphabetic spelling. The writer can choose the properword. In this way, children can look up any word as necessary to writeprovided they choose the correct sound symbols.

As an example, a five or six year old may choose “ch,” “r,” “ee” for theword tree. This is an example of where a teacher will demonstrate thatthe first sound is actually “t,” not “ch.” In this way the childincreases phonemic awareness throughout the writing process. Childrenare encouraged to write with phoneme symbols first and to fill in theirregular letters strings later as part of a more analytical process. Byhaving all the sounds at their disposal children can write fluidly,improve rapidly, build neural connections in the more sophisticatedthought centers of the brain associated with idea construction (many ofwhich reside in the right hemisphere and particularly the right frontallobe).

The present invention includes a system, a method, an article ofmanufacture, a computer-readable medium, a human-readable medium, avirtual medium, a method of reading, a phoneme dictionary, and othersubject-matter.

Although there has been hereinabove described a phoneme decoding systemand method, in accordance with the present invention and for thepurposes of illustrating the manner in which the invention may be usedto advantage, it should be appreciated that the invention is not limitedthereto. Accordingly, any and all modifications, variations, orequivalent arrangements, which may occur to one skilled in the artshould be considered to be within the scope of the present invention asdefined in the appended claims.

1. A phoneme decoding system, comprising: a medium; a plurality of wordsdisposed on the medium, each of the words comprising at least one letterstring, each letter string being representative of at least one of asingle-source phoneme, a silent phoneme, and a multi-source phoneme, andeach multi-source phoneme being one of a plurality of vowel phonemes anda plurality of consonant phonemes; at least one phoneme symbolrepresentative of one of the plurality of vowel phonemes, being disposedon the medium in association to a letter string representative of theone of the plurality of vowel phonemes, and being of a first symboltype, said first symbol type being exclusively associated with the oneof the plurality of vowel phonemes; and at least one phoneme symbolrepresentative of one of the plurality of consonant phonemes, beingdisposed on the medium in association to a letter string representativeof the one of the plurality of consonant phonemes, and being of a secondsymbol type, said second symbol type being exclusively associated withthe one of the plurality of consonant phonemes.
 2. The phoneme decodingsystem of claim 1, comprising an English phoneme decoding system.
 3. Thephoneme decoding system of claim 2, wherein a symbol key defines theexclusive associations.
 4. The phoneme decoding system of claim 3,comprising the symbol key.
 5. The phoneme decoding system of claim 4,wherein the symbol key defines the exclusive associations in accordancewith standard American English.
 6. The phoneme decoding system of claim4, wherein the symbol key defines the exclusive associations inaccordance with at least one of a dialect, a regional accent and acultural accent.
 7. The phoneme decoding system of claim 4, wherein eachletter string comprises a single letter.
 8. The phoneme decoding systemof claim 4, wherein each letter string comprises a plurality of letters.9. The phoneme decoding system of claim 4, wherein the medium comprisespaper.
 10. The phoneme decoding system of claim 4, wherein the mediumcomprises one of an electronic display and film.
 11. The phonemedecoding system of claim 4, wherein the medium comprises a virtualmedium.
 12. The phoneme decoding system of claim 11, wherein the virtualmedium is at least temporarily stored on a computer-readable medium. 13.The phoneme decoding system of claim 11, comprising computer-executablecode for creating at least one of letter strings, phoneme symbols, thevirtual medium, and the symbol key.
 14. The phoneme decoding system ofclaim 11, comprising computer-executable code for altering at least oneof letter strings, phoneme symbols, the virtual medium, and the symbolkey.
 15. The phoneme decoding system of claim 11, comprising computerexecutable code for, in accordance with the symbol key, automaticallydefining the exclusive relationships and altering the disposition of thephoneme symbols accordingly.
 16. The phoneme decoding system of claim11, comprising computer executable code for, in accordance with analteration to the symbol key, automatically redefining the exclusiverelationships and altering the disposition of the phoneme symbolsaccordingly.
 17. The phoneme decoding system of claim 4, comprising atleast one substantially vertical line disposed on the medium and withina word to delineate syllables of the word.
 18. The phoneme decodingsystem of claim 4, comprising a monochrome phoneme decoding system.